Emma Viskic is one of Australia’s foremost crime writers. Best known for her multi award-winning Caleb Zelic series, Emma’s novels have sold around the world to popular and critical acclaim.
Emma’s debut novel, Resurrection Bay, took the crime fiction world by storm in 2015, winning the Ned Kelly Award for Best Debut and an unprecedented three Davitt Awards. It was shortlisted for the UK’s prestigious Gold Dagger and New Blood Awards and was recently voted one of the decade’s best novels by Crime Time Magazine. The sequels garnered a further two Davitt Awards and nominations for international prizes such as the Dublin Literary Award and the USA’s Barry Award. The fourth novel in the series, Those Who Perish, was recently shortlisted for The Ned Kelly Award for Best Novel.
Emma learnt Australian sign language (Auslan) to create the character of Caleb Zelic, who is profoundly deaf. Her attempts to learn to lipread were a dismal failure.
Born in Melbourne, Emma made a name for herself as a classical clarinet player before becoming a novelist. She studied at the Victorian College of the Arts in Australia and the Rotterdam Conservatorium in The Netherlands. Her musical career ranged from performing with José Carreras and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa to playing at an engagement party that ended in a brawl.